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Edwin Moses

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Born:August 31, 1955,Dayton, Ohio

Residence:United States

Biography

Edwin Moses will always be remembered for one of the most dominant reigns in world sport. For a remarkable nine years, nine months and nine days, he remained invincible in the 400 metres hurdles, being unbeaten in 122 consecutive races (107 finals). Bounding over the 10 three-foot obstacles, he took an unprecedented 13 steps in between the hurdles instead of the usual 14 and managed to produce a rare winning mix of speed, grace and stamina.

By the time he retired from the sport in 1989, Moses had won two Olympic gold medals, in Montreal in 1976 and Los Angeles in 1984 and a bronze in Seoul in 1988. He would almost certainly have won a third gold, but for the American boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. In 1983 he broke the world record for the fourth time in Koblenz, Germany, with a time of 47.02, a mark which stood for the next nine years. During his career he won three World Cup titles and two World Championships.

Moses took up athletics at high school after he was dropped from the basketball team and as a relatively unknown 20-year-old he was to stun the athletics world at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, winning the gold medal in a world-record time of 47.64 seconds. On August 26, 1977, he lost to the German Harald Schmidt in Berlin but from this moment on for almost a decade Moses was to remain unbeaten. Even when that historic run was finally ended by Danny Harris, Moses showed his true measure as a champion by producing one of his finest performances. At the 1987 World Championships in Rome he won a titanic battle to claim a wonderful gold, holding off the challenge of Harris and Schmidt.

Moses is one of the few athletes to become a true global ambassador of sport. He was the first athlete to pioneer the acceptance of controlled professionalism in athletics, and, as a sports administrator, he is best known for his work in the development of policies against the use of performance-enhancing drugs. He was responsible for the development of drug control policies and procedures as Chairman of the Substance Abuse, Research and Education organisation.

A qualified physicist, Moses has been a member of the International Olympic Committee Ethics Commission since 2000. In 2000, he was elected by his fellow members to become the inaugural Chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy. He is an accomplished public speaker and motivator, and has been speaking to corporations and other organisations for over 20 years.